Advisory council believes arrival of migrants boosts innovation and productivity boost in Spain
A report has found that 9.5 million inhabitants (19% of the population) were born abroad and 14% hold a nationality other than Spanish
The Spanish government's advisory council on economic and social matters has declared immigrants to be beneficial to the country's economic, employment and innovation growth. During the presentation of the later report, council president Antón Costas said that the activity rate of the foreign population is higher than that of the native population. The CES council, which includes employers and trade unions, highlights that migratory flows boost "entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity in the medium and long term".
The research has concluded that the entry of migrants into the labour market displaces natives to higher positions where more knowledge or skills are required, creating "productivity gains for the economy as a whole in the long run".
The 260-page text, commissioned by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, provides numerous data to gauge the social and economic changes brought to Spain by the massive arrival of foreigners.
A total of three million children in Spain are the offspring of a mother or father of migrant origin, while 9.5 million inhabitants (19% of the population) were born in a foreign country and 14% have a nationality other than Spanish.
"Migration is not a temporary situation - it is a structural reality that defines our present and, above all, will mark our future. The government of Spain manages migration from the perspective of human rights, employability and inclusion. The Spanish model generates shared prosperity and our migration policy is recognised in Europe as a balance between efficiency and humanity," minister Elma Saiz said at the report presentation.
Foreign-born women account for 52% of the immigrant population in Spain, although they suffer from a "confluence of disadvantages and risk of discrimination", such as greater vulnerability to gender-based violence. According to the report, Spain is one of the destinations with the highest number of migrant women, who come to cover labour needs in "highly feminised sectors such as healthcare, care for dependent persons and domestic service activities, but also increasingly in other types of activities such as the hospitality industry or commerce".
"Immigration has come to cushion the demographic impact of the amalgam of social, cultural and economic circumstances that have transformed the size and composition of the Spanish population, especially since the end of the 1990s," the document says,
The report also points to the negative face of immigration, mostly painted by the "illegal market" for appointments in immigration offices and bodies, which increases the "precariousness" experienced by foreigners when it comes to completing procedures to obtain their permits. The "difficulties" in booking appointments online have worsened due to practices that monopolise slots and redirect them to private services, making them available only through certain professionals and at high fees.
